PBEye Blog - Page 6 of 64 - Pro Bono Institute

Lifted Eviction Moratorium Will Lead to Thousands of Renters Facing Eviction Without Representation

July 26, 2021

By Kristen Bolster Over the past few years there has been action at the local level and increasingly at the state level to implement the right to counsel in eviction cases. This action most recently has occurred against the backdrop of COVID-19, at a time when many low-income renters were unable to work and faced the threat of being evicted during a global pandemic. To aid tenants during the pandemic, the federal government announced a national eviction moratorium to stop landlords from evicting tenants for missed rent payments. However, with the moratorium now expiring on July 31, 2021 and roughly 4.1 million renters not current on rent

COVID-19’s Lasting Impact on Small Businesses

July 8, 2021

by Ron Kharmach, PBI Intern On May 13, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fully vaccinated individuals are no longer required to wear masks or socially distance in most circumstances. This milestone is a leap forward toward a sense of normalcy in the United States that has been eroded this past year due to COVID-19. Yet the widespread economic damage—including to small businesses—that the global pandemic caused, and the related need for legal services, is likely to outlast mask mandates. The loss of income and customer base prompted many small businesses to close temporarily. Others have shut

Looking Back While Looking Forward

June 8, 2021

Revisiting the PBI 2021 Annual Conference The cicadas are chirping and the humid, hot days have arrived here in D.C., yet it doesn’t feel so long ago that PBI hosted its springtime Annual Conference. From March 23 – 26, 2021, PBI virtually welcomed hundreds of pro bono leaders from the in-house, law firm, and public interest sectors. Here are a few takeaways that reflect back on the Conference while also speaking to the future of pro bono: Pro bono lawyers are innovating and collaborating to address the crises of our time. During a year that changed the way we practice

200+ Legal Department Leaders Call on Congress to Increase Funding for the Legal Services Corporation

May 27, 2021

For the fifth year in a row, legal department leaders have come together to support funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.

Pro Bono Institute (PBI) and its global in-house project, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), along with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), recently circulated a letter inviting General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers to sign on in support of increased funding for LSC for Fiscal Year 2022.

COVID-19 and Housing Insecurity

May 18, 2021

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, housing insecurity has increased. With over 20 million Americans having lost jobs or experienced pay cuts, access to stable and affordable housing has become increasingly important. Housing insecurity is defined by the Urban Institute as missing or deferring rent or mortgage payments or having little confidence in one’s ability to make rent or mortgage payments. An August 2020 study by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) reported that nearly one in three renters experienced housing insecurity each week from late April 2020 to July 2020.

A Holistic Approach to Second Chances

April 21, 2021

When imagining a courtroom, one word that comes to mind is intimidating. Even as an observer, I can feel my body stiffen when walking into a court. The security guards seem to watch like hawks, the judge presides above you, the attorneys appear cold and stern, and the courtroom itself feels sterile and detached. This reality can leave those participating in and observing court feeling isolated and nervous.

These preconceived notions about what a courtroom is like are anything but true when it comes to the District of Minnesota’s Reentry Court program. Twice a month the courtroom reconfigures itself into a warm, inviting, and supportive environment where formerly incarcerated individuals join a team of prosecutors, federal defenders, mentors, probation officers, and a judge to try and lessen the likelihood of returning to prison.

Two Decades of Exceptional In-House Pro Bono

April 12, 2021

In 2020, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), the global in-house project of Pro Bono Institute (PBI), celebrated its twentieth anniversary, and published the 2020 Benchmarking Report, the sixth biannual report on the state of in-house pro bono. When CPBO was first founded, in-house pro bono was far less common than it is today. Within a decade, in-house pro bono programs had multiplied and expanded. To track and measure pro bono engagement, CPBO began surveying in-house pro bono leaders about their legal departments’ pro bono programs in 2010, and every other year thereafter.

Providing Pro Bono Out-of-State During the Pandemic

March 10, 2021

The coronavirus pandemic has shifted how and where we work. This has raised ethical questions for attorneys working remotely, but also has presented new opportunities to engage in pro bono work in local communities.

Global Pro Bono: Resources, Projects, and Partnerships

February 24, 2021

In recent decades, there has been an uptick of interest among law firms and legal departments to expand pro bono engagement by lawyers and legal staff in countries across the globe.[1] A variety of factors have led to this, including growing emphasis on corporate social responsibility, globalization of the legal profession, greater international emphasis on human rights and access to justice, increasing awareness of economic and social inequities, newly emerging democracies, and newly formed entities that support pro bono engagement. According to the 2020 Benchmarking Survey from the PBI® Corporate Pro Bono project, 35 percent of in-house legal departments indicated that they already engage in global pro bono work, and law firms around the globe are engaging their volunteers in pro bono. While pro bono services are well developed in many places, there are also many countries around the world where pro bono work is either nonexistent or in a nascent stage. Utilizing appropriate resources and learning from past or current global projects is beneficial to the success of increased pro bono engagement.

Empowering Communities of Color Through Fair Redistricting Plans

February 17, 2021

Fair redistricting is essential to our democracy, and this year represents an opportunity to ensure that, in the future, communities of color will have the opportunity to elect representatives of their choice. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) has been a safeguard for minority representation in elections since its enactment 56 years ago. VRA Section 5 represented a cornerstone of this protection by requiring those States, or their political subdivisions, with a history of discriminatory voting procedures to obtain federal approval before implementing changes to their geographic voter districts (or any other change in standard, practice of procedure). When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled VRA Section 4 unconstitutional in 2013 (in Shelby County v. Holder), it effectively rendered Section 5 inoperable. While many had hoped the U.S. Congress would enact a work around to revitalize Section 5 before the 2020 census was completed and redistricting (based on revised population figures) started, this has yet to occur. Without the protection of Section 5, communities of color are at increased peril of disenfranchisement through unrepresentative redistricting.